Homily for the Third Sunday of the Holy and Great Fast - The Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

 

Homily for the Third Sunday of the Holy and Great Fast 

The Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross 

On the Value of the Soul

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet lose his own soul?
Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36-37)

Beloved faithful,

In today’s sermon on the Holy Gospel, we will speak, as much as the Most Good God enlightens us, about the honor of man and the value of the human soul. Behold what the Savior says: “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). Then He says: “Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:37). Hear, my brothers, how great and immeasurable the value of our soul is, and to what honor and esteem our Savior Jesus Christ Himself has raised it. And if this is so, who could ever resist this truth?

Holy Scripture often calls man a “soul.” Behold what it says in Genesis: “The souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, that came out of his loins, were sixty-six souls, besides the women of his sons” (Genesis 46:26). See, Holy Scripture calls man a “soul.” And why does Scripture call man a “soul”? The answer is this: because of the great value the soul has in comparison with the body. But can one call the soul “man”? No. A human can be called a soul, but the soul alone cannot be called man. For the soul has an invisible nature, and the body has a visible and tangible nature, and only when these unite in a single hypostasis is it called man. But the soul is not called man without the body, nor is the body called man without the soul. For man is a hypostasis united from two natures, soul and body.

Homily for the Third Sunday Evening of Great Lent (St. Sergius Mechev)

Homily for the Third Sunday Evening of Great Lent 

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

(Delivered in 1929)

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

For one who repents, my dear ones, it is not fitting to judge or to engage in idle talk. One who repents should, as much as possible, be silent, in order to work out his salvation in repentance. But we are constantly speaking idly, constantly judging and re-judging others, constantly doing evil with our tongue. By this we bring harm both to ourselves, who speak evil, and to those who listen to our evil speaking. And the Holy Fathers point out that our tongue is a small member, yet it does great evil, setting on fire the course of life (cf. Jas. 3:6). How easily it arms one person against another. And our carelessness about our speech becomes an instrument of murder. Saint Anthony the Great says plainly: “He who receives a slanderer or a backbiter becomes a partner with a murderer.” You see, according to the words of the Holy Father, a slanderer and a murderer are one and the same. “Flee from the slanderer, whoever he may be, and do not be ashamed to flee from him.” “It is safer to live with a snake than with a slanderer,” say the Holy Fathers. And John of the Ladder forbids us to show respect to such people. “Never show respect to the one who speaks maliciously to you about his neighbor. By this you will heal both yourself and your neighbor.”

Homily on the Third Sunday of Great Lent (Righteous Alexei Mechev)

Homily on the Third Sunday of Great Lent*

By Righteous Alexei Mechev

Today the sufferings of the Savior on the Cross are remembered, and the Gospel read today points to the Cross as the instrument of our salvation. Look, dear ones, what a sorrowful and difficult path Christ our Savior had to pass while He, leaving the judgment hall of Pilate, went to the hill of Golgotha. Long is this path: first He goes through the valley, and then He ascends over rocky ground up the mountain, and along this sorrowful road Christ must carry upon Himself His enormous Cross. What pain this Cross caused to the body of Jesus, covered with blood and wounds as a result of His scourging in the courtyard of Pilate!

But look with what joy He carries His Cross, with what patience. They strike Him, they laugh, they mock Him, but He is silent and opens His mouth only for the consolation of others: He consoles His grieving Mother, He consoles the women of Jerusalem who accompany Him with weeping to Golgotha.

Holy Martyr Agapios and His Seven Companions in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

These Saints lived during the time of Diocletian. And Agapios was from the city of Gaza, Timolaos from Pontus, the two Dionysioses from Tripolis of Phoenicia, Romulus was a subdeacon of the Church in Diospolis, and Plesios and the two Alexanders were from Egypt. All of them, after first binding their souls with longing for Christ, then put their hands into chains and came before Urbanus, the governor of Caesarea, confessing that they were Christians. Then he, since he could neither bend them by threats nor by flatteries, nor indeed remove them from the faith of Christ, ordered their heads to be cut off with the sword.

It is logical: Saint Joseph the Hymnographer takes as the basis of his divine inspiration for the seven martyrs — the first of whom is Saint Agapios — precisely the name of Agapios. In almost every troparion of the Service which he composed for them, he emphasizes that the motive of their martyrdom and of their struggle in general was their fervent love for the Lord. For example:

“You have been wounded by love, of the Master of all, O most admirable Martyr Agapios, and you desired beforehand to die for Him” (Ode 1).

“Having greatly desired Christ, O Agapios, you courageously imitated His sufferings” (Ode 4).

Prologue in Sermons: March 15

The Chosen Servants of God Sometimes Also Bear Upon Themselves Special Signs of God’s Mercy Toward Them

March 15

(A Word about Sergius the clairvoyant hermit.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The beloved servants of God, who are appointed by the Lord for higher service in His Church, sometimes bear within themselves not only special spiritual signs of His mercies toward them, but also — visible to some — particular tokens indicating their future great service. This we shall demonstrate by the following example.

In the Prologue, on the fifteenth day of March, in the church reading, it is written:

“Monk George the Armenian related: ‘Abba Gregory, the abbot of the Lavra of Pharan, many times asked me to bring him to Sergius the hermit, who lived not far from the Dead Sea. I fulfilled his wish and once brought him to the elder, who received him very kindly, brought water and washed his feet, conversed with him the whole day about the salvation of the soul, and only on the next day dismissed him.

Orthodox Theology and Hesychasm, According to Father John Romanides

Prologue 

 

The feast of Saint Gregory Palamas, on the Second Sunday of the Fast, reminds us of the great value of Holy Hesychasm as the foundation of Orthodox theology, which differs clearly from Western scholastic theology — the latter having created many problems in the West through the Reformation, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, German idealism, Existentialism, and so on.

Holy Hesychasm is not a theology of the past, but rather the very Orthodox theology itself, which continues to inspire and produce saints even today. Specifically, all the saints who in recent years have been added by the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Church’s calendar are Hesychasts, in the full sense of the term as analyzed by Saint Gregory Palamas.

And of course, it is impossible for us to participate in the worship of the Church, to honor Saint Gregory Palamas, to chant the sacred troparia inspired by Holy Hesychasm, and to honor the modern saints, while at the same time speaking of transcending the teaching of the Holy Fathers, and naturally, of transcending Holy Hesychasm itself.

Father John Romanides admitted, to his credit, that when he wrote his dissertation on “Original Sin,” he was unaware of certain aspects of the topic, including Holy Hesychasm. That is why in his later studies he supplemented this gap, as is evident in the preface of the second edition (Domos publications) of his study on “Original Sin.” In all the works of Father John Romanides, it is clear that his teaching was inspired by the teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas and the Hesychast Fathers of the Church; it was in the same atmosphere as the teaching of the Orthodox Church.

Venerable Benedict of Nursia in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The focus of Saint Joseph the Hymnographer, as he seeks to glorify and highlight Venerable Benedict, is the Venerable one’s withdrawal from the world due to his fervent love for the Lord, but also his return to the world with pure love, through his prayers and healing miracles. In other words, the Hymnographer emphasizes Benedict’s ascetic life from childhood: his ascetic struggles, his tears, his chastity, which were fruits of his love for the Lord, and his healing presence in the world, both for his monastic disciples and for ordinary people who approached him.

Already in the first sticheron of Vespers, we hear:

“Out of true faith and love for God, Father, from infancy you renounced the world, Venerable one, and joyfully followed Christ crucified. And having mortified your flesh with many ascetic struggles, you received abundantly the grace of healings, so that you could cure various diseases and expel the spirits of wickedness.”

Pan-Orthodox Problems (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Pan-Orthodox Problems

Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The articles that are written about the unity of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which in recent years has been undermined by various actions, show that a problem exists in pan-Orthodox relations at the level of the Primates of the Orthodox Churches. Meetings and dialogues are held between the Orthodox Church and other confessions and religions, but dialogues among the Orthodox Churches themselves are not taking place. One must be affected by shortsightedness not to understand this and that this is serious.

Of course, this did not arise simply from the autocephaly in Ukraine, which was granted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, just as it has granted it in the past to nine other Orthodox Churches, but from internal undermining of centuries directed against the First-Throne Church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate. When one reads the proceedings of the pan-Orthodox meetings, committees, and so forth — at least of the last 150 years — they will understand this very well. There the internal competition becomes clearly visible through the mentality of various social and political associations. Partisan mentalities are created, groupings, hidden internal rivalries, with the ultimate aim of showing who has the power to influence pan-Orthodox affairs, through the undermining of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Prologue in Sermons: March 14

On Patience

March 14

(A Word of our Venerable Father Palladios on the Spiritual Struggle.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The Lord says: “In your patience possess your souls” (Luke 21:19), and in another place: “He who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matt. 10:22). From these words of the Savior it is revealed that the path to heaven is a sorrowful path and must be passed with patience. But here is the question: will there be a reward for patience? Is there any meaning in enduring? And what is the purpose of enduring to the end?

Our Venerable Father Palladios of Galatia once instructed the brethren who had gathered to him as follows:

“Let us struggle so that we may enjoy great blessings unto the ages. Look at the martyrs, look at the ascetics, how they endured to the end and how courageously they struggled, and how for this they were crowned by the Lord. How can one not always marvel at their constant patience? It seems to have been beyond human strength! Some had their eyes gouged out, others had their hands and feet cut off; others were burned by fire; some were drowned in the seas; others received death in rivers; some were deprived of life as criminals; others were given to be torn apart by wild beasts. And all this they endured while glorifying God. And the more the devil armed himself against them, the more they by their courage put him to shame. And their hope — that God would reward them for their sufferings — was not in vain. Their sufferings were not forgotten by God, but were praised in Heaven and glorified on earth. And the Source of miracles, God, gave them authority to open the eyes of the blind, to cleanse lepers, to cast out demons, and to heal diseases. He opened to them the heavenly doors and led them into eternal life and into the heavenly Jerusalem, where there is eternal rejoicing.”